The Naked Spur is a 1953 Western film directed by Anthony Mann. The film stars James Stewart, Janet Leigh, and Robert Ryan.
Director: Anthony Mann
Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Cast: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker, Millard Mitchell
US Box Office: $6,057,500 ($96,600,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Technicolor
Genre: Western, Drama
Release Date: February 1, 1953
Plot Summary: Bounty hunter Howard Kemp (James Stewart) is reluctantly forced to team up with failed prospector Jesse Tate (Millard Mitchell) and disgraced ex-soldier Roy Anderson (Ralph Meeker) to capture murderer Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan). The uneasy trio captures Vandergroat and his naïve companion Lina Patch (Janet Leigh) in the Colorado wilderness. The shifty Vandergroat is willing to do anything to escape his three captors, including convincing Lina to seduce Kemp. However, Lina soon finds herself falling in love with Kemp for real.
Production: In 1951 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer producer William H. Wright began working on a western drama film titled The Naked Spur. The screenplay for the film was written by Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom. The Naked Spur was about a bounty hunter who reluctantly teams up with two other men to capture a murderer in the wilderness, and and it focused on the group’s tense journey back to civilization to collect the reward money. MGM studio executives approached Anthony Mann to direct The Naked Spur. They approved of his work directing James Stewart in two earlier Western films for Universal Pictures, so Mann was asked to direct the film. Mann agreed to direct The Naked Spur and signed a new contract with MGM.
James Stewart was chosen to play the role of bounty hunter Howard Kemp. The Naked Spur was the third Western to pair Stewart with director Anthony Mann following Winchester ’73 (1950) and Bend of the River (1952). In total Mann directed Jimmy Stewart in eight films, five of which were westerns. Thunder Bay, an adventure film directed by Mann and starring Stewart, was also released in 1953. Janet Leigh was cast as Lina Patch, Vandergroat’s companion who eventually falls in love with Kemp. She had recently starred in the adventure film Scaramouche (1952) and in the comedies Just This Once (1952) and Angels in the Outfield (1951). Richard Widmark and Robert Horton were both considered for the part of villain Ben Vandergroat before Robert Ryan was cast. MGM borrowed Ryan from RKO.
Filming on The Naked Spur began in May of 1952 and wrapped up in late June. The Naked Spur was shot on location in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado and near the town of Durango, Colorado. The city of Lone Pine, California was also a filming location. Director Anthony Mann was interested in filming in Colorado because he thought that deserts, such as Monument Valley which frequently appeared in John Ford’s films, were overrepresented in Western films and he wanted to showcase a different side to the American frontier in The Naked Spur. Mann stated, “I wanted to show the mountains, the waterfalls, the forested areas, the snowy summits – in short to rediscover the whole Daniel Boone atmosphere: the characters emerge more fully from such an environment. In that sense the shooting of The Naked Spur gave me some genuine satisfaction.”
Fun Facts and Trivia: The Naked Spur (1953) was the first of three films directed by Anthony Mann to star Robert Ryan. The two later films were Men in War (1957) and God’s Little Acre (1958). Ryan and Ralph Meeker later appeared together in the war film The Dirty Dozen (1967). The Naked Spur and the comedy Here Come the Girls were Millard Mitchell’s last two films. Mitchell unfortunately died of cancer in October of 1953, a few months after The Naked Spur was released. Here Come the Girls was released shortly after his death.
Reception: The Naked Spur was released in the United States on February 1, 1953. The film was decently successful at the box office and it earned a profit for MGM. The Naked Spur received mostly positive reviews from film critics when it was first released. Moira Walsh of the magazine America described the film as “well-executed” and she praised the film’s beautiful scenery. Virginia Graham of The Spectator also gave The Naked Spur a positive review. Although she normally didn’t care for westerns, Graham had strong praise for Jimmy Stewart’s performance.
The Naked Spur has received a strongly positive response from modern critics. John J. Puccio of Movie Metropolis described the The Naked Spur as being “engrossing” and praised Mann for adding darkness to the characters, including Stewart’s hero. Bob Bloom of Journal & Courier praised Stewart’s performance and stated that the film was a “must-see” for Stewart’s fans. Carol Cling of the Las Vegas Review-Journal gave The Naked Spur a perfect 5/5 star review. Matt Brunson of Film Frenzy, Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid, and Jeffrey Westhoff of the Northwest Herald also gave the film positive reviews.
Oscars: The Naked Spur was nominated for one Oscar at the 26th Academy Awards ceremony: Best Original Screenplay (Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom). Rolfe and Bloom lost the Oscar to Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Richard L. Breen for Titanic (1953).
Why You Should See It: The Naked Spur is a strong western drama film. William C. Mellor’s cinematography is excellent and the Colorado wilderness showcased in The Naked Spur looks great. Anthony Mann did a fantastic job with the character interactions. The cast of The Naked Spur is quite small (only five actors have speaking parts), but this allows Mann to develop each of the main characters and ensure that all of their interactions and dialogue are interesting. The actors are all good in their parts, especially James Stewart.